Looking at the title of this post, I could of easily called it Catchers! What are they good for? In fantasy you wouldn’t be wrong, because they can cause more harm than good. Those average draining, games played depleting, good for nothing bums. Except for you Yan Gomes, I own you in a few places, as I got a thing for Brazilian booty. What’s wrong with that? Have you seen the pics of female Brazilian soccer fans? Don’t judge me monkey! Seriously my fetishes…I mean my preferences are not what I’m here to talk about, we can do that in the comments. Oh and I’m gonna talk about a few end-of-the-draft CI’s too.
This list will be of players drafted from the 20th round on or at pick 229 on, if you prefer it that way. I’m using ESPN ADP which by the way, gets lazy and labels everyone after 260 at 260. Go figure. In an RCL, 300 players are drafted, so depending on strategy you can use these as either late grabs or if you are in deeper leagues they are must owns.
C.J. Cron, 1B (ADP 260) – I like the Cron dog. Considering he got jerked around by the Sciosciapath for half of last season, he still managed 11 bombs in 253 AB’s. He has no splits issues (.258 vs. L, .255 vs. R), and the 16th best ISO among 1st basemen with at least 250 AB’s. That’s sandwiched between Pujols and Frazier if you are keeping score. Back in February the Angels said they were looking for a cleanup hitter as the Sciosciapath was content leaving Trout in the 2-hole and Pujols in the 3-hole…hehe. Now if he falls in line with his minor league percentages then his K-rate (24.1%) should fall and walk rate (4.0%) should rise. Steamers has him at 12 HR’s in only 363 AB’s, but that was done before Josh Hamilton went all Ajax Lady from Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke. I would post the video but its not really safe for work and I like my job. YouTube it! He’s not a bad grab to start the year at CI or utility if you like to keep that open for a hot bat. Last year he showed his hotness when he got the call and demonstrated some relevancy (8 HR in 128 AB’s). After that he started pressing as he would go days on end riding the bench with no split strategy or anything making any sense (like this sentence) from his manager. Players like Adam Lind, Joe Mauer and James Loney are going ahead of him and I just cant get behind that strategy when you should be drafting upside late. He’s the only 1B I’m covering as a late grab because he is the only one I like for upside, Michael Morse or Kendrys Morales are 32 and 31 respectively and they are a “if he can stay healthy” pick. To be fair though Morse’s outfield eligibility is appealing so I will go over him in the outfield post later.
Trevor Plouffe, 3B (ADP, 260) – I really wanted to write about Nick Castellanos here but Grey already did and I want to give you another name if Nick is gone…or I want to be contrary. You decide! Last year was a better year at the plate for Plouffe across the board, except for home runs. Seriously, he had a career year for himself, and the following are all career bests. Runs (69) hehe, RBI’s (80), walk rate (9.1%) k rate (18.7%), AB’s (582) and batting average (.258). Among qualified 3rd basemen he had the 8th best ISO (.165), led the position with 40 doubles and had the 6th most RBI’s. The commentary I have been reading says his glove has improved so much that he is forcing the Twins to think about other places to play Miguel Sano. Yes people, teams make defensive decisions that can affect our fantasy wet dreams. Like many end of the draft grabs we need to think about these things. I could mention he is in a contract year and at age 28, he turns 29 in June, and is looking to get paid before the decline years settle in. Oh damn, did I just do that? Shame on me for using such bad analysis. Oh well get over it, this is a flyer at the end of your draft, not a penciled in starter unless you are in a 16 teamer with a CI spot. He might not be sexy but his wife is smoking hot and even brings the beer. Seriously click on that link. Smoking hot!
Luis Valbuena, 2B, 3B (ADP, 260) – This is a platoony tunes special for you guys that like to play the splits to maximize games and not take hits with bad matchups. Last year Valbuena cracked 16 homeruns and had the 3rd best ISO among all qualifying 3rd basemen. He doesn’t hit for power against lefties but can bomb on right-handers as demonstrated by his 15 HR’s last year. Moving to Houston won’t hurt his game. Minute Maid Park was 5th best park for Lefties to hit home runs for 2013-14 as opposed to Wrigley which was 15th. The extra eligibility at 2nd base makes for a nice bonus as a middle infidel option. Frequent Commenter and 2015 spring training LABR party crasher Ghost Town Steve, Oaktown Steve to the old schoolers, is very high on him and I’m hoping he comes into the comments to chat up all those feeling the Valbuena. I drafted him in the Razznasty dynasty league to platoon in my utility with Alejandro de Anza. *fingers crossed*
FrankenCatcher, C (ADP, DGAF) – Yup, I just did that. This for you rosterbating RCL guys or those in 12 team daily leagues. Stream the catcher slot until you find a gem. Grey already did an amazing job covering all the late round catchers here, so go ahead and grab whichever one is there at the end of the draft. Now be prepared to stream your heart out you rosterbating loving Razzballeros. This is my hard zig or is it zag….it’s my zog! Go ahead and play the hot hand, favorable schedule or whatever floats your boat. Actually you can have little boat races in the bath tub with those wind up fishy’s with catchers names written on them if you choose to do that. Oh man, John Jaso wins again. In all honesty, I’m going to be profiling a catcher every week in my Creeper of the Week post as a weekly streamer called the Creepy Catcher. If you want more than that we will always have that over-sexed Buick loving rust snorting maniac the Hitter-Tron around to help you make a daily call. But why J-FOH? You can’t take the easy way out and not give me a name. Give me a name dammit! Nope, because I choose not to run recommend. Trust me, we can do this together. Between myself, hitter-tron, Grey’s daily rundown, and even the DFS catcher calls we can do this. To quote a song title by Townes Van Zandt, the man I was listening to when I wrote this, To Live is To Fly, so lets fly together for 2015 at the worst fantasy position ever.
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